Creating easy-to-read short links to the App Store for your apps and company

Q:  How can I create easy-to-read short links to the App Store for my apps and company?

A: The iTunes and App Store apps generate URLs for all apps and companies available in the App Store and Mac App Store by clicking the disclosure triangle next to the app's price (or by right-clicking/control-clicking the app icon) and selecting "Copy link", or by using iTunes Link Maker. These URLs look similar to Listing 1.

Listing 1  Standard App Store Links.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keynote/id361285480?mt=8

These URLs are great for linking to your app or company page in the App Store or Mac App Store from your website or inside your app, or anywhere you don't need to type or speak the URL. As a rule, always use these standard links when driving users to your app from your digital marketing communications.

You can also create easy-to-read links to your app using App Store Short Links, which use the AppStore.com base URL plus a specific form of your app or company name. These short links are ideal for use in offline communications materials like print ads, TV spots, app trailers, radio ads and billboards where you need a memorable URL.

There are three types of App Store Short Links, in two forms, one for iOS apps, another for Mac Apps:

Company Name

• iOS: http://appstore.com/<companyname> for example, http://appstore.com/apple

• Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<companyname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple

App Name

• iOS: http://appstore.com/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/keynote

• Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/keynote

App by Company

• iOS: http://appstore.com/<companyname>/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/apple/keynote

• Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<companyname>/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple/keynote

Most companies and apps have a canonical App Store Short Link. This canonical URL is created by changing or removing certain characters (many of which are illegal or have special meaning in a URL (for example, "&")).

To create an App Store Short Link, apply the following rules to your company or app name:

• Remove all whitespace

• Convert all characters to lower-case

• Remove all copyright (©), trademark (™) and registered mark (®) symbols

• Replace ampersands ("&") with "and"

• Remove most punctuation (See Listing 2 for the set)

• Replace accented and other "decorated" characters (ü, å, etc.) with their elemental character (u, a, etc.)

• Leave all other characters as-is.

Listing 2  Punctuation characters that must be removed.

!¡"#$%'()*+,\-./:;<=>¿?@[\]^_`{|}~

Below are some examples to demonstrate the conversion that takes place.

App Store

Company Name examples

• Gameloft => http://appstore.com/gameloft

• Activision Publishing, Inc. => http://appstore.com/activisionpublishinginc

• Chen's Photography & Software => http://appstore.com/chensphotographyandsoftware

App Name examples

• Ocarina => http://appstore.com/ocarina

• Where’s My Perry? => http://appstore.com/wheresmyperry

• Brain Challenge™ => http://appstore.com/brainchallenge

Mac App Store

Company Name examples

• PopCap => http://appstore.com/mac/popcap

• Autodesk Inc. => http://appstore.com/mac/autodeskinc

• Chen's Photography & Software => http://appstore.com/chensphotographyandsoftware

App Name examples

• Pixelmator => http://appstore.com/mac/pixelmator

• Human Japanese => http://appstore.com/mac/humanjapanese

• F1 2012™ => http://appstore.com/mac/f12012

All URLs are accessible worldwide and will direct the customer to their respective country's App Store. Because of the possibility of name conflicts or other errors, URLs which have multiple results, for example <http://appstore.com/airhockey>, will return a search page. Using unique names for your apps will help prevent this.

If you experience incorrect results (for example, a URL which doesn't go where you expect it would) or if there are characters you would like to see removed or changed, please file a bug report via <http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter> with the following information:

• Full current or desired URL, for example, http://appstore.com/mysuperapp

• Applicable countries

• The iTunes-generated URL to the desired landing page, which you get by clicking the disclosure triangle next to the app's price (or by right-clicking/control-clicking the app icon) and selecting "Copy link" (for example, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app...)

These App Store Short Links are provided as a convenience and are not guaranteed to link to a particular app or company. Be sure to test your URLs before using them in any marketing or other public materials. If there are naming conflicts, continue using the standard itunes.apple.com URLs, which contain a unique numerical identifier within the URL.

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